Trump to unveil new U.S.-Cuba policy next Friday in Miami

MIAMI — President Donald Trump will visit Miami next Friday to announce he will tighten some restrictions on those who travel to and do business with Cuba, fulfilling a campaign promise to reverse historic changes former President Barack Obama made more than three years ago when he removed decades of diplomatic and economic barriers between the two countries.

The specifics of Trump's executive action aren't yet clear, according to sources familiar with the administration's discussions. But it's expected to bear the stamp of two pro-embargo anti-Castro Miami Republican hardliners, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who helped advise the White House and national security officials.

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The exact location of Trump's announcement isn't clear, either. White House advance teams are scoping out spots this weekend.

The Obama administration established normal trade and diplomatic relations with the communist Cuban government in December 2014. Months later Obama became the first sitting president to visit the country since Calvin Coolidge. In July 2015, the U.S. reopened its embassy in Havana. Last December, shortly before Obama left office, the U.S. abstained for the first time from an annual vote at the United Nations calling for elimination of the embargo against Cuba.

Many expect that Trump will not reverse Obama's decision to open a U.S. embassy in Havana or reinstate the "wet-foot/dry-foot" policy that allowed Cuban immigrants who touched U.S. shores to become legal residents.

The decades-old U.S. embargo remains in place and cannot be lifted without approval by Congress, thanks to the so-called Helms-Burton Act that Diaz-Balart's brother, former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, pushed President Bill Clinton to sign in 1996.

As a presidential candidate, Trump was difficult to pin down on his opinions about U.S.-Cuba policy.

In the early months of his successful White House run, Trump called Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba “fine” but also boasted that he could have cut a better deal with the Castro regime.

As the general election grew closer and needing to win over Cuban-Americans in Florida, the billionaire businessman morphed into more of a hardliner.

“All the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime were done through executive order, which means the next president can reverse them — and that I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands. Not my demands. Our demands,” Trump told some 2,500 cheering supporters in Miami last September.

“Those demands are religious and political freedom for the Cuban people. And the freeing of political prisoners,” Trump said before questioning the crowd on whether he hit the correct pro-embargo notes: “Is that right?”

Earlier in the campaign, on the rare occasions when he would talk about Cuba, Trump expressed his usual confidence about crafting a better deal with Cuba.

When asked in a 2015 interview about the Obama administration’s U.S.-Cuba policy, Trump told The Daily Caller: “I think it's fine. I think it's fine, but we should have made a better deal. The concept of opening with Cuba — 50 years is enough — the concept of opening with Cuba is fine. I think we should have made a stronger deal.”

The Daily Caller earlier this month was the first to report that an announcement from Trump on Cuba would happen this month.

In a GOP presidential primary debate before the Florida primary in March 2016, Trump repeated that he could negotiate a far better deal than the Obama administration.

“What I want is I want a much better deal to be made because right now, Cuba is making — as usual with our country, we don't make good deal. We don't have our right people negotiating, we have people that don't have a clue,” he said.

Trump’s opponent at the time, Rubio, scoffed at the idea of negotiating with Cuba if it doesn’t meet U.S. demands.

“Here's a good deal — Cuba has free elections, Cuba stops putting people in jail for speaking out, Cuba has freedom of the press,” Rubio said. “Cuba kicks out the Russians … and kicks out the Chinese … Cuba stops helping North Korea evade U.N. sanctions, Cuba takes all of those fugitives of America justice, including that cop killer from New Jersey, and send her back to the United States and to jail where she belongs. And you know what? Then we can have a relationship with Cuba. That's a good deal.”

Trump later told the Miami Herald that any future deal with Cuba would have to include one key provision: Barring Cuba from seeking reparations over losses alleged incurred by the U.S. embargo.

Since his election, Trump has been mostly mum on his U.S.-Cuba policy, but he’s reportedly considering rolling back at least portions of Obama’s normalization of relations with the communist island country.

In crafting his new U.S.-Cuba policy, Trump must maneuver to please the politically conservative Cuban-American exile community. With Rubio and Diaz-Balart by his side and backing his policy, Trump shouldn't have a problem winning support from exiles. At the same time, though, Trump's administration is mindful about impeding the growing number of business interests — especially those in agricultural states — who are looking to take advantage of a new foreign market.

One pro-Cuba advocacy group, EngageCuba, commissioned a recent study that claimed reversing the Obama administration policies could cost the U.S. more than $6 billion and 12,000 jobs during Trump’s first term.